he'd spent on tv last night politicking reading a book about leadership instead. and jerry in arizona writes, it's all about re-election, and obama's personal agenda. taking the debt ceiling issue to the people in his speech last night amazed me. here's the man who got us into debt, demanding a blank check to get us farther into debt. you can read more about this on my blog. wolf? >> jack, thank you. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." for our international viewers "world report" is next. in north america, "john king, usa" starts right now. >> thank you, wolf. and thanks for joining us. i'm jessica yellin, john king is off. we've got breaki ining news on eve of the milestone in our country's future. the house of representatives is supposed to vote tomorrow on speaker john boehner's short-term plan to raise the debt limit and cut about a trillion dollars in spending. but just a few minutes ago the speaker announced he plans to rewrite the bill because it does not cut enough spending.

cnn congressional correspondent kate bolduan joins us now from capitol hill, what is the latest? >> reporter: you know the cbo numbers, the congressional budget office, jessica, this office that scores, gives a cost estimate, for legislation, it's very critical, and this evening it came out the cbo brought out -- gave out its estimate, and it says that the speaker boehner's bill falls short of what its target was. it says that it would only reduce the deficit by $850 billion, rather than the more than a trillion dollars than the legislation said it was going to -- said it was going to. here's why it's such a big problem. because of speaker boehner, he said there's one major principle, you'll remember, jessica, as they moved forward to raise the debt ceiling, that the amount of the cuts be greater than the amount they raised the debt ceiling. and in this legislation right now is called for raising the debt ceiling by $900 billion, $850 billion, is less than $900

billion, so know that's a problem. policy aides are scrambling to try to rewrite the legislation to make their way forward. we know they're aiming for a vote tomorrow, but we don't know if they can promise it quite yet. we got a speaker from speaker boehner's spokesman, this coming from michael steele, in response, in reaction to the cbo, michael steele said we're here to change washington, no more spoke and mirrors or phantom cuts. we promised we'd cut more than the debt ceiling. as we speak, congressional, are looking at options to rewrite the legislation to meet our pledge. this is what can happen when you have an actual plan and submit all

it really seemed to work when you're looking at websites crashing, including that of the speaker on capitol hill today. and reports of many offices fielding just tons of phone calls. tons of e-mails. on the flip side, though, jessica, there was a conservative group that tried to do the same thing, kind of in response. since the president had his open call. there was a report actually from a conservative newspaper that it had jammed the phone lines here

at the white house, but i'm told by deputy press secretary josh ernest that actually that didn't happen, that there was an increase in call volume, but it didn't jam the switchboard and we're still waiting, jessica, to find out how many phone calls they did get here. >> looking ahead to tomorrow, what you're hearing from your sources, what worries the white house the most in the vote tomorrow in the house of representatives assuming it comes off now that the speaker has to rewrite the legislation? >> reporter: i don't know that there are increased concerns especially from the latest news because we've heard from white house press secretary jay carney repeated that the white house is confident that the senate would never allow the boehner bill to get to the president's desk. certainly i think that when you're looking at votes like we will see tomorrow, and it's so uncertain if it's going to certainly succeed or fail, i think there's definitely a concern about how the markets are going to respond, and this is really kind of the ride that everyone including the white house is bracing themselves for. jessica, as you know, the president actually -- or the

white house, the executive branch, put out a veto threat today of this boehner plan. it really struck me that the language was weaker than other veto threats we've seen. it said that the president's advisers would recommend that he veto that bill. but i think that the support for the boehner plan is increasingly coming under question with some defections from conservative house republicans and also now with them rewriting the bill because of this cbo number that's not good news for the speaker, i actually think the white house is encouraged. >> they would argue that the future of that bill is so much in doubt that they didn't need to issue a full veto threat. we will see. >> reporter: exactly. >> thank you, brianne keilar, reporting from the white house. what has been a big departure from the often quiet white house, officials were out in full force today selling their message that the president wants compromise on capitol hill. they've made it clear that he fears historic damage to the economy if there is no deal. with us tonight to discuss this further is the president's communication director --

communications director, dan seifert, dan, thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me, jessica. >> let's start with the basics, something that matters to every american. how dire will it be for the economy if the debt ceiling is not raised? >> in the 200-plus years of our country, we've never been in a position where we've been in danger of defaulting on our obligations. we know it will create tremendous market uncertainty. it will likely lead to rising interest rates for all americans, people who own homes, cars, credit card bills, students trying to pay off their student loans, their costs will go up. it's essentially a tax increase for every american, we've got a fragile economy and it's very bad and we should come nowhere near doing that. >> you said on cbs radio that failure to put us toward a depression, do you stand by that language? >> let me explain what i was talking about there. we're in a fragile recovery. in 2008, in 2009, right after the financial crisis, we were on the tipping point into -- into

something as bad as the great depression. we cannot take a risk like this. we don't know what will happen, know it's not good for the economy, it's not a risk we can take. we kneeled cneed congress to dob and send something to the president. >> there's one republican plan in the house of representatives, then there's a democratic plan that could go and move in the senate. there is no clarity that either version can get through both houses of congress. we've heard administration officials say that there's a need for compromise. why hasn't the president come out last night or today and put forward his own plan for compromise? >> we've put forward enough plans for compromise to fill a room. in fact, they're probably stacked on speaker boehner's desk right now. we've done everything we can. the issue is the house republicans refuse to come promiles at all. we've adopted a "my way or highway" approach. they want to balance the entire budget on the back of the seniors and the middle-class and they're unwilling to compromise and holding the american public hostage, that's dangerous.

>> there's a hunger for leadership in the country and david plouffe said to wolf blitzer just a short time ago a quote, you could see there's seeds of compromise. what is the president doing to broker the compromise? >> well, we're having conversations with leaders in both houses and both parties to look for what we can do next to bridge this gap. there are multiple paths to compromise. the reid bill and the boehner bill are not that different, except for one critical difference which is the boehner bill will insist that six months from now we're going to have to go through this whole fight again, that would be bad for the economy. it risks a downgrade we're looking for ways to do that. we just need a willing partner who is willing to compromise with us. senator reid's bill is designed for the compromise, it meets the tests as constrived trived as t be, they've taken off revenue increases from wealthy americans.

>> you can live without the revenue increases? >> the reid bill is a better path. it's a missed opportunity that the house republicans were unwilling to put their money where their mouth is in terms of reef deucie i reducing our deficit, the reid bill makes important cuts in domestic spending that we agree with. it protects critical investments and protects the economy, and can pass the house and that's the right thing to do. it also ensures that we don't have to refight the same fight a few months from now. >> there are new reports out from financial forecasting firms saying that the u.s. is actually taken in more tax money than projected. and they say that come august 2nd we'll actually be able to pay our bills. so, i'm curious, does the white house still believe that on august 2nd we do hit the debt limit and that is the actual deadline? >> yes. the reports you're referring to are guesses, guesses at best, from folks who don't have the full information. i spoke to the treasury

secretary before i came over here who said to me we're still planning for august 2nd being the day. the fact is we don't have to get to august 1st. congress has to do its job and stop with the political statements we're doing in the house right now, get in a room and compromise and move on, that's what the american people want, that's why they're filling up e-mail boxes and jamming the phones. >> do you believe you'll have a deal? >> the president is confident we'll have a deal. it is unfathomable to think that the house republicans can be so see tied to the ideaological agenda that they'll allow the country to default. >> will the president be willing to sign a short-term deal to get us over the hump? >> the president has said if we're at a place where there's a couple of -- we need a few days to dot the "is" and cross the "ts" we'd obviously entertain something like that, but we can't increase the uncertainty in the economy and keep the cloud of default over us for months to come and have a

political fight later. we can't do that. frankly it can't pass the senate. we need come promilpromise from republicans so we can do the right thing for the country here. >> are you waiting for the boehner bill to fail before you decide what the next move is? >> i don't think the fate of the boehner bill is largely irrelevant, because it can't pass the senate. the president's not going to sign it and so we're basically wasting critical days in a -- with a ticking clock on what's essentially at best a political statement. >> so, you just think that the state of play has to move on to the senate before you can do hee on that the house republicans give up their "my way or the highway" approach and -- >> you said you spoke with the treasury secretary. social security bills have to be paid on the 3rd, major payments have to be made to bondholders on the 4th. the treasury department is making contingency plans what

get paid when if this happens. when will the american people know what the plans are? when will you make it public? >> the president talked about friday night in his press conference and some last night about the consequences for this. the treasury department is making sure that if we reach the unthinkable position we'll handle it the best way we can. >> but you'll tell the american people what will come first. you have to tell the people at some point. >> absolutely. we'll make sure that the american people will know what needs to be done. that's part of why the president gave his speech last night. >> the big picture question, all this talk is making everybody concerned about the economy. right now the unemployment rate is 9.2%, how concerned are you that the debt limit fight will make the job situation in the u.s. that much worse? >> well, i think that we have put by being unwilling to compromise, and unwilling to do something serious about our deficits over the last few weeks we've created unneeded uncertainty in the economy and there's no reason to do that. what weed into to do is solve the problem and the hope is that we can do that as soon as

possible. >> with the president heading into a re-election cycle, how aware are you making him keeping his job that much harder? >> it feels like we're 100 years away from the election. i know that's not always true to cable television. we're going to deal with this. we're going to solve this problem before august 2nd, and we'll be working hopefully in a bipartisan fashion to cut the deficit and the debt and grow the economy and there will be a debate between a soon to be running republican in the fall of next year about what the appropriate way is going forward, and that's a debate i'm confident we'll win. >> i hope you're right that we'll get to something before august 2nd. thank you. a prominent conservative who is against speaker boehner's deficit cutting bill, that's coming up. [ male announcer ] this is the network. a network of possibilities.

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[ whistles ] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪ [ ting! ] [ male announcer ] travelers can help you protect the things you care about and save money with multi-policy discounts. are you getting the coverage you need and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage or visit travelers.com. tonight we have breaking news on capitol hill. speaker john boehner just announced that he's rewriting his plan to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending because there just aren't enough cuts in it. a lot of eyebrows went up today when the club for growth, a when he club for growth, a

promotes limited government came out against speaker boehner's original plan and brent buzell is a member for the club for growth leadership council, and he joins me now to discuss it. thanks for being with us. the club for growth came out against the speaker's plan before the cbo even scored it. i want to read what you all said. you said, quote, the plan cuts almost nothing immediately. it caps only discretionary spending, and it does not require passage of a balanced budget amendment. perhaps more importantly, it simply doesn't fix the country's fiscal problems. we strongly oppose it, and we urge a no vote. do you believe it will pass tomorrow? >> no. and if it does, it's irrelevant. first of all, i'm not speaking for the club for growth. i'm speaking for america, my organization. i'm on the advisory board for the club for growth, but i know what they're thinking, which this is insanity. look, you've got a train wreck that we're facing, and a budget -- an idea that cuts

spending a trillion dollars over ten years just isn't serious. when you're looking at a $14 trillion debt that we have. we've got calamity facing us, and there is an idea that's on the table. it's the idea that congressman boehner supported. it's cut, cap and balance, and the reason all three elements are important is because you can't trust congress. we've seen it over 25 years. they make these promises, and they regularly break these promises, so you've got to have a mechanism in place that holds them to a promise, not that allows them to make a promise. >> would you rather face the quens of consequences of default? >> look at this, are we going to have a default? i wish the obama administration would get his facts straight, they are making phone calls to the banks saying don't worry, we're not going to default, there's not a problem. there's not a problem. which one is it, the scare

tactics -- >> how do you know that? i've heard they're on the phone with the banks saying we're concerned, too, but, you know -- >> but don't worry, that's not what we're going to default. that's what the banks are saying. we heard last weekend, jessica, didn't we hear that we have to have a deal in place because the asian markets were going to collapse sunday night and the american markets would follow. it didn't happen. two weeks ago we heard if we didn't have a trillion dollar tax deal on the table, there would be a massive run on the stock market. it didn't happen. we don't know what's going to happen. we really don't. >> we keep hearing that both the plans proposed by the democrats and by the republicans may not be enough to avoid a downgrade of the nation's credit rating. >> nope, not true. not true. going to have to stop you there. there's one plan, s&p -- we have to have the facts on the table. s&p and goldman sachs had both said you have to have at least $4 trillion in cuts. the reid plan doesn't have it. the boehner plan doesn't have it. there's only one plan that has it, which is cc & b.

cut, cap and balance. >> it won't pass both houses of congress. you need one that will pass. >> the president and the senates -- as rickie ricardo would say, they've got explaining to do to the american people. there's only one plan that will avert a downgrade and they're against it. they got a better plan, they got another plan that diverts it? let's see it. i think it's interesting that you're hearing the president is trying to play the centrist road game but he hasn't put anything on the table! >> he wants something that can get through that can actually get done, and so the question is if this could lead, if the lack of action could lead to default, and that leads to economic -- more economic hardship, do you want that on your shoulders? >> why is it on republicans' or conservatives' shoulders? >> you say you're against all the plans that are out there. >> i'm for the plan that's passed the house. that's what i'm in favor of it. let's reverse it. why aren't you having it of the

liberals and the obama administration? >> we ask it of all of them. >> you ask them if you don't support this, you are supporting a potential catastrophe in this country? the cut, cap and balance is the one thing that will prevent it. why don't they support it? >> and do you see a way for cut, cap and balance to get through both houses of congress? >> i think that the speaker should put it right back on the table. and say, this is the only thing. you got a better idea? let's hear it. but so far no one has a better idea! >> so you think that's the solution, he should pull his bill tonight and put cut, cap and balance back on the table? >> absolutely. >> maybe he's watching. i think he's busy rewriting a bill but maybe he's watching and we'll see. >> thank you. >> thanks for being with us. and now that we've heard from a top conservative and the white house and capitol hill, who, if anyone, has the upper hand tonight? some of washington's top political watche erers will be

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breaking news tonight, speaker john boehner has just announced he's rewriting his deficit reduction bill ahead of tomorrow's high-stakes house vote, meanwhile the white house calls for compromise, so who has the upper hand in the deficit battle tonight? let's talk it over with jackie cobb, a national correspondent for "the new york times" and

daniel stone a white house correspondent for "newsweek" and the daily beast. thanks for being here. jackie, first to you, looking at the landscape today, your assessment, who has the upper hand? >> well, it's hard to say at this point. it's been back and forth so often, but one thing's clear, it's not speaker boehner who has the upper hand. he's struggling to pass his version of a fallback plan to raise the debt limit with the spending cuts attached. and he's losing republican votes. he's not going to get any democratic votes to speak of. and he's got a full array of conservative groups working against him to defeat it because it's, as your last guest said, it's just not -- doesn't go far enough for them, but what they want can't pass the senate. probably couldn't pass the house, and certainly wouldn't get president obama's signature. >> it's a pretty pickle, the speaker's in, daniel, but looking at the white house for a moment, we just heard them say

that if the u.s. defaults we could be headed toward a depression or leading in that direction. does that help the u.s. congress reach a deal? >> it helps the white house certainly. they're all about urgency right now. they want to put everyone on this clock towards tuesday and say we need to get something done right now. you had dan pfeiffer from the white house, they're on a media blitz and trying to get something done. for the markets, they want certainty and a deal and no deal and people walking away from deals, that language isn't helpful, and certainly not a depression. >> it speaks to washington but not the markets. >> certainly, all about washington. >> speaker boehner's plan is coming up for a vote tomorrow assuming he gets it rewritten. members of his own party are waiting to see if they'll vote. democrats have been pretty quiet on it, do you think they're waiting to see if the plan fails before they act? >> absolutely. the democrat ii is take tact han

that way the whole time. we could see momentum building for that in the coming day, that's why we haven't heard from democrats. >> a lot of democrats on the hill keeping their powder dry while they're waiting to see what happens with boehner's bill. >> exactly. >> jackie, you wrote the debate over spending seems to be a lost opportunity. i want to listen to mitch mcconnell and then we can talk about it. >> the situation the president described last night bears very little resemblance to the realities on the ground right here in washington. i know the president would rather give speeches about our problems than resolve them, but he wasn't elected to talk about the united states. he was elected to lead it. >> so, jackie, does the president risk looking like a follower rather than a leader in this debate, or is that just the way senator mcconnell wants it to seem? >> well, i mean, there is a big risk that whatever gets done is going to be far less than president obama's original

goals, and it's been a very ugly process. but, you know, it's hard -- this line of -- that republicans are using about, you know, he hasn't led or more to the point, he hasn't put out a plan, you know, there -- it can't be both. there's democrats on his side that are really unhappy with the level of concessions he's made, you know, hundreds of billions, very specific proposals that he's put on the table in exchange for not -- far from a dollar-for-dollar exchange on tax revenues. and it would be -- you know, it would be interesting if the republicans would have let it be tested by, you know, taking the president's offer just how hard a time he'd have getting his democrats to support it. i think in the end he probably would, but it would be pretty tough. >> do you think democrats have support for the bill harry reid has proposed in the senate,

jackie? if they were to move forward with that, could they get that through both houses of congress? >> god, it's hard to tell. but, i mean, i think that something that majority leader reid and the republican minority leader, mcconnell, come up with is, you know, pretty much looking like it's where this is going to be resolved. and then, you know, presumably you would send it over to the house, and they would -- one way or another, have to take it. now, speaker boehner would have to bring it to the floor knowing that he'd lose a lot of his republican members. but one thing that's been missing in a lot of the coverage and the talking about this and attention to the house republicans is, whatever happens in the house, whatever plan is there, speaker boehner needs some republican votes. because on a debt limit vote, he's going to lose anywhere from 20 to more of his house republicans who are dedicated to voting against any debt limit increase. >> it's just such a pretty pickle they're all in.

daniel, i want to ask you about what david brooks wrote in "the new york times" today, the columnist, an opinion columnist wrote, quote, obama's friday appearance had a gigantic unintended consequence. it brought members of congress together. they decided to take control. the white house is now on the sidelines. democratic and republican congressional leaders are negotiating directly with one another. the president really on the sidelines and do you think the white house is concerned about that perception? >> i think on friday that's where it put him. david brooks, of course, is the bellwether columnist, tell us where a lot of washington is, president went out there emotional on friday and very upset and with his speech last night, i don't think we saw the effect that he wanted, the effect that his people wanted, that's why they've been all over the networks today trying to make their case, but i don't think the president is as engaged in this fight as he'd like to be and certainly without as much power as he needs at this point. >> jackie, i know you talk to as many people in this town as anyone, just your odds, will

this be resolved next tuesday or not? >> god, you know, i've been here so long and through so many debt limit fights, but like a lot of people, this has been the ugliest one i've seen and perhaps the most, you know -- the highest stakes. and, um, i'm not sure. i can't say yes yet. >> okay. >> because there's just enough people like your prior guest who think that there's no -- nothing to fear. >> okay. thanks so much. jackie and daniel for being with us, i'm grateful. and next, the latest on the norway terror attacks, and a new state department warning to u.s. travelers. ♪ ♪ ♪ look at that car, well, it goes fast ♪ ♪ givin' my dad a heart attack ♪ [ friend ] that is so awesome. ♪ i love my car [ engine revving ] [ male announcer ] that first chevy, yea, it gets under your skin.

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welcome back. here's the latest news you need to know right now. egypt's state-run news agency reports ousted president hosni mubarak is depressed and refusing to eat as he awaits trial on charges of ordering police to kill anti-government protesters. a travel warning from the state department says what he calls anti-american violence around the world, including assassinations, kidnapping, hijackings and bombings. norwegian police today started publishing the names of the 76 victims of friday's bombing and mass shootings. the suspect's attorney told reporters his client may be insane. at his confirmation hearing, the

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tonight we have breaking news on capitol hill. house speaker john boehner has announced hill rewrite his plan to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending because the cuts in his package aren't big enough. cnn congressional correspondent kate bolduan joins us from capitol hill. hi, kate, what's the latest there? >> reporter: just that. and that's big news. you can be sure, jessica, that what the house speaker does not want to be doing right now is having to rewrite his bill. they were aiming to be voting on this bill tomorrow, so right now we're told that they're kind of scra scrambling to work it out and rewrite it, and he wants to meet

the pledges that the cuts in the bill will be larger than the debt ceiling increased. and the cost estimates that came out by the cbo, it falls short, and that's a problem because it goes counter to the pledge i just said and it's also a problem because they're in the middle of working very hard to try to sell this plan. house conservatives are unhappy and house democrats are trying to get a united front to vote against this plan, and that does not leave the speaker a large margin of error to pass this legislation. jessica? >> all right, thanks so much, kate bolduan reporting for us from capitol hill. i'm grateful. let's turn now to republican congressmen scott garrett from new jersey who is a member of the budget and financial services committees. sir, thanks so much for joining us. >> sure. good to be with you. >> i understand you've been on the fence about the boehner plan. today the cbo said the plan only had $850 billion in savings. and now speaker boehner's office said they're rewriting the bill.

so, did that influence your vote, first of all? >> well, i appreciate the fact that the speaker has said all along and i think the republican position has been all along that whatever debt limit increase we talk about, and, of course, you know that the house republicans and house democrats have already passed a bill out of the house that does raise the debt limit, but whichever one we do has to, you know, really cut more money than we -- than we raise the debt limit by and i think in their initial numbers, this bill would have done that by a marginal amount. but we don't do anything here in washington without cbo scoring it and as you said it came in 850 and it's under the trillion dollars in cuts they needed. at least we have a bill here. unfortunately, as you know, the white house has yet to give us anything in writing that we can try to compare this against to see whether this is good, better, or worse than the white house is presenting us with. we have nothing from the white house. but at least here we have something on paper. >> how much pressure are you getting to support the speaker's

plan? >> so, the speaker and leadership is saying this is the avenue that they would like to send over to the senate, even though the president has already said that he would veto the bill essentially, and harry reid said he's not enamored with it. at least this would be one more thing in the senate for the senators to consider. they haven't done anything unfortunately over there. what i'm doing with our leadership right now is saying, look, we've already sent a bill over there that could cut spending, cap spending and move towards a balanced budget. we can take a look at where the leader is -- the speaker is right now, but we probably want to try to plus up some of the cuts. you know, right now the president wants to cut zero in 2012. speaker wants to cut around $7 billion in 2012, and a number of us think we can up the number. likewise with the caps and likewise with the balanced budget amendment, all that needs to be addressed. >> the white house communications director was on the show a little while ago, and he described the speaker's bill as, quote, irrelevant, and the white house basically issued a

veto threat to the plan. should the house be working on a bill that would never become law? >> one of the earlier guests said whether at this point in time the white house is really on the sidelines. in one sense the white house has been on the sidelines all along in this debate. the president never truly engaged whatsoever, never came forth with a proposal that would create jobs and get the economy moving and never specific as we have here in the house. we've passed in the house a bipartisan bill that's already sitting in the senate. now we have a second proposal that's literally in form and written down. we may have to -- the leader may want to tweak it or what have you, but the white house has been on the sidelines, the white house i hate to say this has been irrelevant in this entire discussion. unfortunately they honestly will be irrelevant going forward until they come to the table, sit down with us, and say, here in writing is what we want to do. here is how we get the economy moving again. here's how we get jobs created again. here's how we can try to cut spending in -- >> what will it take you to decide whether you'll vote yes on this? >> the first and foremost is to

see what the next version of this bill is and that won't be for a period of time. and secondly to see whether -- the point i was just making, whether the president now comes forward and said, i want to get engaged, here's our plan. still waiting for that. and thirdly, waiting to see if the senate does anything. they have one bill sitting over there, they didn't say no, mind you, it's the cut, cap and balance bill, they said let's postpone it. i would encourage senator reid to say let's have the house move something else, let's have that come up for debate and have a discussion on it, let's move it for a vote, yes or no, it would not be a bad thing for the senate to be doing something while the house copts s contin act. >> the rest of the country is staring at washington confused. one of the popular video on youtube is blank you to washington. 53% of republicans in a new poll now say they want congress to compromise and get things done on the debt ceiling. why is compromise so hard to

achieve on this issue? >> well, one reason it's hard to compromise with someone sitting across the table from you if i say, i stand here, and i lay it all out, and the person on the other side doesn't lay out where they are, then it's hard to reach that middle ground. and i know the president said during his speech he didn't want to get into the details during his last speech -- last night, well, that's the problem. you can't compromise unless he's willing to tell us specifically where does he want to have cuts, where does he want to see increases, where does he want the revenue to grow from. we haven't seen it. it is frustrating for me just as it is for the american public. >> we have to just point out obviously he was involved in discussions for a number of weeks and then -- >> sure. >> -- and that didn't broker a deal in the end either, so -- >> but he came -- he came -- no, he came to the discussions with nothing in hand. he came to those discussions with just a broad outline saying we want to move in this direction or that direction. that is not taking part in a critical way. that's not taking part in a

fruitful way for discussions. >> how concerned are you, some of the ratings agencies are going to testify before congress tomorrow. no doubt they'll be asked about the chance of a downgrade. how concerned are you about the u.s. credit rating? >> well, i'm absolutely concerned about that. because that's one of the big issues in any plan that we actually get through congress, so it's not enough, if you look at the rating agencies what they've already said, they've told us, it's not enough simply to raise the debt limit over the next several days to get that behind us. they said we need to make structural changes, significant structural changes in spending so that we're not in this situation down the road. where our debt-to-income ratio, our principal payments-to-revenue ratios they have to change substantially they said otherwise we'll find ourselves with a downgrade. so, the president's general broad plan of saying raise the debt ceiling won't work. senator reid's general plan that he has in a bill form that says let's raise it only this much and cut only this much generally speaking won't do it because it doesn't make structural changes.

so, i'm very concerned about it. >> all right. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> we'll look forward to see which way you decide to go -- >> appreciate it. >> -- on speaker boehner's plan. >> thank you. in a minute james carville and mary matalin will join us to take a look at the political ad war sparked by the deficit fights. on of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say.

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targeted with commercials. so let's check out a few that have caught our eyes and ears. joining to us listen and watch are james carville and republican strategist mary matalin. thanks for being with us. so we're going to take a little bit of a lighter turn on this debt drama. first let's listen to the progressive christian group sojourners. they put up radio ads that target both republicans and democrats saying that, well, we'll listen. here's one targeting speaker boehner in his home state of ohio using scripture to make the case against certain kinds of spending cuts. >> the book of proverbs teaches that where there is no leadership, a nation falls. and the poor are shunned while the rich have many friends. sadly, congress has failed to heed these biblical warnings and our own representative boehner is ricking the health of our economy if america defaults on its debts.

>> so you get the point of that. they have a similar ad up in kentucky where mitch mcconnell is from, and in nevada for leader reid. so james, who is the target audience for an ad like this? is it really a way -- what does it do? >> i'm not sure. i guess that michele bachmann said she is talking to god about run forg president. they have the christian coast guard and everything. i guess everybody is looking for divine guidance in here themselves cannot seem to get together with the approach. my guess is that this is just trying to add a little more wood to the fire to try to bring thing into more focus. i don't think these ads will be hugely influential. to people running they will, well motivated people and i'm sure they want to participate in the debate. >> is it a good way to speak to voters? >> it to get people like us to

talk about it. >> it worked. >> people that are already stake out. but the message is stranger. the message is about leadership. boehner represents one half of 1 third of the government. when the president who all americans consider the ultimate leader had all branches of government for two yearsering did absolutely nothing. so there is someone to call out on leadership or the lack there of, it is the president. i'm confused about their message if they're trying to target republican. >> they talk to democrats, too, in another ad. let's listen to one that really does go after a democrat. a debt ceiling ad hitting in ohio democrat, sherrod brown. >> politicians like sherrod brown voted for billions in new tax and racked up trillions in crushing debt. >> now president obama wants to continue to have the reckless spending.

>> he wants to raise taxes even higher. >> that cost us more jobs. >> we've got to take away president obama's blank check. >> james, are people going to vote on the budget and the deficit? >> you know, sure, it is a kind of fact. sherrod brown is leading by 12 points of any republican. he is doing pretty good in spite of this. to be fair almost all republican policies, these charts that come out every day in the newspaper. so he shall, there are two sides to every story. i think this is karl rove's group. they've got every right to run all these ads but senator brown is a pretty tough guy and i suspect he'll be able to deal with it. >> another candidate, former speaker night gingrich went on the record in new hampshire on a radio station. he sounded a little nostalgic with james' old boss. listen to this. >> bill clinton was willing to be practical.

and we have very tough negotiations. we were able to sit down face to face and negotiate a deal, and he really went so much further to the sender than president obama is. and he was so much more flexible. i don't think there is any comparison. i don't think president obama is trying to impoe a fairse a fair radical version. >> looking back it a we didn't think of it at the time. now with we compare the two presidents, of course, bill clinton was a far years i don't remember president for the country. he passed trade bills, welfare reform, in the course of these discussions, complaining that the president obama's debt commission was not listened to. he was heard off camera saying to paul ryan, he mopes the defeat in new york 26 didn't result in what's happening here. that we don't do anything about medicare. yeah. president clinton in hindsight was far more centrist than this president. i want to go back to the ohio

business though. that state, i don't care about the cross fire of sherrod brown, running against vulnerable senators, five competitive states. everyone is talking about boehner. it is the senate that can't get anything passed because none of though democratic senators will vote for a tax increase. >> we'll see what happens in the senate next. i want to go back to gingrich and bill clinton. do you recall the positive statesmanship? >> i actually recall night gingrich leading the charge to impeach bill clinton. in other words, maybe i just don't, maybe i have a different kind of memory, a view of american history. and i remember night gingrich saying that president obama had an anti-colonial view of manager. wherever that came from. i am sort of he said amored that night gingrich has now professed love for bill clinton when he was trying to run him out of

office and to try to have a criminal prosecution. when you get old, i just remember too many things. >> don't believe him. he doesn't remember anything. he can't hear and he doesn't listen. >> come on, night, don't you know that we remember that kind of stuff? please. >> there's been a rap video that has gone viral via drew carrey's website. maybe we can play a snippet. ♪ we out of 20s on the beach get your tan -- >> is there some way in which this debt drama has been good for the country? because now we're all engaged in policy? >> absolutely, yes. every poll said over 80% of people are following this very closely. it is wonder will for the country to understand the difference between